Which country does the most good for humanity?
November 5th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
You may not be surprised to hear that the answer – again – is Sweden. You might be surprised to learn that the UK comes in at 4th place. The USA is only 20th. Here are the top and bottom scorers:
The top 5:
1. Sweden
2. Denmark
3. The Netherlands
4. United Kingdom
5. Germany
The bottom 5:
159. Iraq
160. Central African Republic
161. Mauritania
162. Ecuatorial Guinea
163. Libya
These rankings come from the latest annual report of the “Good Country Index,” which ranks 163 countries by their contributions to the global community. You can check out all the scores here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Some good news: the Paris climate agreement is now official
November 4th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
As the “Guardian” newspaper puts it:
“The significance of the Paris agreement coming into force today is easy to miss: it may seem like an anti-climax, given the travails that led up to its signing last December.
But the moment is of huge importance. This is the first time that a legally-binding agreement, signed by all of the world’s functioning governments, has laid down a commitment to limit the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere with the goal of preventing global warming exceeding 2C above pre-industrial levels.
This figure was not plucked out of the increasingly carbon-rich air. It is the limit of what scientists regard as safety, beyond which climate change will run out of control, unstoppable in its damaging effects.”
More information here.
Posted in Environment | Comments (1)
Where the heck is Matt Harding now?
November 4th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I love the videos created by American traveller Matt Harding.
This is his latest:
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
The top ten candidates for Collins word of the year
November 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The English language is very fluid and dynamic with new words coming along all the time, not all of which stay the course. Collins Dictionary has announced that Brexit is its word of the year – this year, use of the word has increased by 3,400% – but the other words on its list of finalists were:
- Hygge
- mic drop
- Trumpism
- throw shade
- sharenting
- snowflake generation
- dude food
- uberization
- JOMO
If you’re not sure what these terms mean, you’ll find more information here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the latest super-hero movie “Doctor Strange”
November 1st, 2016 by Roger Darlington
“Doctor Strange” is the fourteenth film to be released by Marvel Studios for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it’s another success for the company – sheer entertainment with some visual pyrotechnics. You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Whatever happened to Halloween?
October 31st, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Last year, almost 60 children came to our door for Halloween. This year, it was less than 30. I blame Brexit. Now what am I supposed to do with all those chocolates?
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
What do we do if aliens make contact?
October 31st, 2016 by Roger Darlington
As this short article makes clear, Hollywood has all sorts of answers:
“There’s ‘Contact’ (we build a space ship), ‘District 9’ (coexist unhappily), ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ (friendly abductions) and ‘Independence Day’ (bang!). Next week, Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Arrival’ will give its answer.”
Of course, as the article makes clear, unless the laws of physics can be altered in some unimaginable way no aliens could ever make the journey to visit us and even a two-way exchange of messages would take hundreds of years. So that’s that one more thing you don’t have to worry about.
So back to worrying about Donald Trump. What do you mean, you think he might be an alien?!?
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
A review of the recent movie “The Intern”
October 30th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
There are not enough female writers and directors in film-making and not enough movies that are addressed to the issues of an older audience. “The Intern” is written and directed by a woman of a certain age and appeals to both a maturer audience (the intern is Robert de Niro) and a younger audience (his boss is Anne Hathaway). You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Ever heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect?
October 29th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The Dunning-Kruger effect is defined as “a cognitive bias in which low-ability individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability as much higher than it really is”. The phenomenon was first observed in a series of experiments by David Dunning and Justin Kruger of the department of psychology at Cornell University in 1999.
Policial commentators and social scientists are excited because they believe that they have found the most dramatic case of the Dunning-Kruger effect in the history of modern times. It is called Donald J Trump.
Posted in American current affairs, Miscellaneous | Comments (2)
An excellent example of why a free society needs independent trade unions
October 28th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
GMB, the union for professional drivers, has won their case against Uber as the London Employment Tribunal has determined that Uber has acted unlawfully by not providing drivers with basic workers’ rights.
GMB brought two test cases to the Central London Employment Tribunal on 20 July 2016 and it has decided that Uber drivers are entitled to receive holiday pay, a guaranteed minimum wage and an entitlement to breaks. The Tribunal decision will have major implications for over 30,000 drivers in London and across England and Wales and for workers in other occupations.
GMB found last year that a member working exclusively for Uber received just £5.03 per hour in August after costs and fees were taken into account, significantly below the national minimum wage of £7.20. Lawyers for the drivers also argued that Uber acts unlawfully by frequently deducting sums from drivers’ pay, often without informing the drivers in advance, including when customers make complaints.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)